by Jay Shepard (on loan from Rebelscum.com)

Sunday, April 24, 2005 - 12pm

The wait for Timothy Zahn was quite long and filled about 2/3rds of the panel room. In fact such a long time was spent letting people in, he started a little later and gave a number of fans the chance to get a few items signed or just shake his hand.

There was a lot of great anecdotes about his writing and the positive fan reactions, but by far the coolest thing, and what really excited the fans in the room was information about his newest books. Yup, books. Plural. Read on for more information.

The moderator started off the show and Mr. Zahn talked a little about his newest novel, Star Wars: Outbound Flight which is due in bookstores on October 25. He explained a little about how the book, and it's sequel, the previously released Star Wars: Survivor's Quest came to be released.

In 2000 Lucasfilm approached Mr. Zahn to tell the story of Outbound Flight, the mysterious Jedi ship that was alluded to in his earlier Thrawn Trilogy. He thought about it for about two seconds and agreed. It was to be released before Episode 2, but eventually got pushed back to late in 2005 on the Del Rey release schedule.

He was then asked to do a Luke/Mara story so he thought, since prequels are so popular, he would link the two stories together. He doesn't usually write this way, but scheduling permitted it and he worked out both outlines simultaneously and was able to start plot threads in Survivor's Quest that won't resolve until Outbound Flight. When asked if fans would ever find out more about Talon Karrde's old boss, Jorj Car'das, Zahn replied "You mean the Jorj Car'das in Outbound Flight?"
He promises great Jedi action with Jorus C'baoth (the original, not the clone) and Obi-Wan and Anakin will be featured in the first half of the book. Zahn also indicated Commander Thrawn will be featured and will not disappoint with his tactics and military action.

What really got attendees excited was his announcement of a new book that is to be set right after A New Hope and features the classic characters. It is tentatively titled Allegiance and he will start working on it come August 2005. He was treated a huge round of applause when revealed it will depict Mara Jade at the height of her powers as The Emperor's Hand! He hopes to be able to find a nice part for Chewbacca, and will also feature Vader with some interaction between the Sith Lord and The Emperor's Hand.

When asked what else he might be writing in the GFFA, he admitted that it's by invite only, but he might like to do a Luke/Mara/Ben Skywalker story post-Legacy. He also would like to do a Thrawn and the Chiss book but feels it may not be marketable enough, so he said he may pitch it to the Star Wars Insider as short fiction.

Other things he touched on were clarifying some plot points about the Far Outsiders from the Hand of Thrawn duology, and the fact that he intended them to be the Yuuzhan Vong, but wasn't allowed to be more specific than he was. He also wishes he could have better nailed down the timeline issues in his first trilogy (as far as the Clone Wars and Prequels are concerned) but those are the breaks. "We get to play in George Lucas's driveway with our toys. And when he backs the car out and breaks something, we really have no right to complain."

All in all he was very modest and self deprecating towards the fans accolades, and wants to thank the fans as much as anyone for the resurgence of the Star Wars fiction. "I just poked my finger in the crust to show everyone that there was still steam here."